REVIEW DRAFT - Anyone interested in trying something a bit different?
If you haven't guessed, I'm very methodical in the way I do things. I know exactly what I'm going to add to the site each week. I know exactly which albums I'm going to attempt to rate / review each week. I have lists all over the place and am very rarely spontaneous. To make things a little less predictable, I thought I'd let Metal Academy choose a release for me to listen to and review once a month.
You may or may not realise it, but when you go to a clan page (such as https://metal.academy/clans/6), you're shown 40 random releases for that clan. If you keep refreshing the page, the site will just keep giving you another random batch of 40. So I was kind of thinking that I'd refresh the page once a month and accept whatever release is shown first for one of my clans.
But this got me thinking... would anyone else like to be involved, just to make it a bit more fun and collaborative? If, for example, there were 4 members of The North that wanted to roll the dice, we could allocate numbers 1 to 4 to each of us to get started. Each month whoever was 1 last month becomes 2 and whoever was 2 becomes 3 etc. Whoever is number 1 each month gets first pick of the first 4 releases that the site throws up. Then the person with number 2 picks from the remaining three releases etc.
There are bound to be cases where releases aren't available to listen to, but we'll just exclude those when they happen and take the next one.
If anyone wants to join me for any of my clans (FALLEN, HORDE, NORTH, PIT), let me know. I'm happy to start as the highest number, meaning I get the release that no-one else wants in the first month.
As an example, I just refreshed my North clan page and got the below. If I had first pick, I'd definitely be choosing Lurker of Chalice!
Count me in for The North, The Horde and The Pit Ben.
This seems like a fun idea. However, of my 4 main clans, only The Infinite would work with the 4-member approach (me, Xephyr, Saxy, and Rexorcist). My other 3 clans, The Gateway, The Revolution, and The Sphere are the least popular ones with only me in them along with Saxy in The Gateway. But I think we can work something out...
OK Ben, if you are willing to put up with even more of my nonsensical ramblings you can count me in for the North, Fallen and the Pit. As it is randomised will you be publishing a list of the available releases because I presume it would be different for everyone (or am I missing something).
As there is an overwhelming percentage of unrated releases on the site, after refreshing the page, starting with the first release, why not take the first four unrated (or unreviewed) releases that come up? This way we would all probably be hearing something new to us (which could become a previously undiscovered favourite) and it would also have the added benefit of expanding the number of releases that have been reviewed and rated. Just a thought...
I'm a Pit man myself, so sign me up. Throw me in for my other two clans when we get there.
I'm afraid I've already got enough Metal Academy-directed listening to do every month between the nine feature releases, the Hall of Judgement releases I'm consciously trying to contribute to & the subgenre deep dives I've been conducting in the interest of site integrity. I might leave this one to everyone else for the time being or I'll never get the opportunity to explore my own passions.
At the same time, I don't know if I can contribute to a pit one just yet. I'm starting the early thrash challenge, so I've got 23 albums to review and listen to / replay. Seriously, the way these guys sing is exactly like half the 80's hardcore singers I've already heard.
As there is an overwhelming percentage of unrated releases on the site, after refreshing the page, starting with the first release, why not take the first four unrated (or unreviewed) releases that come up? This way we would all probably be hearing something new to us (which could become a previously undiscovered favourite) and it would also have the added benefit of expanding the number of releases that have been reviewed and rated. Just a thought...
I'm not sure that's actually necessary, as the percentage of unrated vs rated on the site is huge. We'll end up with a full suite of unrated releases quite often I reckon. Plus there are so many rated releases that I haven't got around to rating / reviewing myself, so I'm actually keen to use my draft pick to do just that.
If the likes of Reign in Blood / Master of Puppets come up, we can always make a group decision at the time to ignore them.
As there is an overwhelming percentage of unrated releases on the site, after refreshing the page, starting with the first release, why not take the first four unrated (or unreviewed) releases that come up? This way we would all probably be hearing something new to us (which could become a previously undiscovered favourite) and it would also have the added benefit of expanding the number of releases that have been reviewed and rated. Just a thought...
I'm not sure that's actually necessary, as the percentage of unrated vs rated on the site is huge. We'll end up with a full suite of unrated releases quite often I reckon. Plus there are so many rated releases that I haven't got around to rating / reviewing myself, so I'm actually keen to use my draft pick to do just that.
If the likes of Reign in Blood / Master of Puppets come up, we can always make a group decision at the time to ignore them.
That's fair enough Ben. To be honest I tried it with the Fallen and the first four releases that came up had a grand total of one rating between them, so I guess you are right, there will probably be loads of unrated stuff coming up anyway.
For the first drafts, let's allow drafters to select from the first 4 randomly generated releases. So if there are only 2 drafters for a clan, they still pick from 4 releases. If we end up with 5 or 6 drafters for a clan in future, we can allow the choice from 8 randomly generated releases. I think this allows us to reject releases we're already well acquainted with and also those releases that you couldn't make us listen to at gunpoint.
OK, the September Review Drafts look like this...
THE FALLEN (Ben, Sonny)
THE HORDE (Ben, Vinny)
THE NORTH (Ben, Sonny, Vinny)
THE PIT (Ben, Sonny, Vinny)
I'm going to use a random number generator to come up with initial draft orders for each clan, starting with The North and The Pit.
THE NORTH DRAFT ORDER
1. Sonny
2. Vinny
3. Ben (damn it!)
4. Xephyr (late entry)
THE PIT DRAFT ORDER
1. Ben
2. Sonny
3. Vinny
4. Rexorcist (late entry)
That means Vinny must get first pick of The Horde...
THE HORDE DRAFT ORDER
1. Vinny
2. Ben
...and I'll let Sonny get first pick of his beloved The Fallen
THE FALLEN DRAFT ORDER
1. Sonny
2. Ben
I'll start the drafts under their respective Clan forums. I think this is going to be fun. 
Sorry to throw a wrench into this, just got home to check the site, but I could try doing a North one? I can just go last, doesn't bother me. It's been hard to think about music reviews lately so maybe something that forces me to be creative will help me with my writing process.
I guess I'll take the fourth Pit slot. I can always hold off on the Pit challenge a little longer.
Sorry to throw a wrench into this, just got home to check the site, but I could try doing a North one? I can just go last, doesn't bother me. It's been hard to think about music reviews lately so maybe something that forces me to be creative will help me with my writing process.
All good Xephyr! The more the merrier. I'll add you in, and we'll make that draft out of 6.
I guess I'll take the fourth Pit slot. I can always hold off on the Pit challenge a little longer.
Cool. As above, we'll make that draft out of 6.